Combination garment and blanket



1955 v. 1.. STEPHENSON COMBINATION GARMENT AND BLANKET 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 15, 1953 VfZ/Vf Z JTfP/A A/SUA INVENTOR.

BY FM I ATTOE/VE).

Oct. 18, 1955 v. L. STEPHENSON COMBINATION GARMENT AND BLANKET 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 15, 1953 Vie/v5 Z 57'fP/7f/V50/Y INVENTOR.

0770EA/z57.

United States Patent Ofihce 2,720,654 Eatented QOMB MI QN G R NT Ann B AN Verne L. Stephenson, Goshen, ind. rr iafisa Ap l 1 9. e a Ne 3 5 4 Claims. (Cl. 269) This invention relates to a combination garment and blanket, and'more particularly as, a blanket which is adapted for use as a cover or for any other use to which a blanket is normally adapted, and which is provided with separable fasteners accommodating the formation of a garment from the blanket. 4 i In particular this invention relates to improvements upon my c ending United States patent application, Serial No. 205,979, filed January 15, 1951, now Patent No. 2,656,540. I The primary object of this invention is to provide a combination blanket and garment with a novel arrange ment of fasteners which facilitates the use of parts of the same fastener either for securing the blanket in garment; forming position or for holding the garment in compaetly folded form for convenient storage, handling and I carrying.

Other objects will be apparent from the following spec: ification. i In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the blanket laid fiat and illus: trating in dotted lines the lines along which the blanket is folded;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the blanket in partially folded condition with parts broken away to show the manner in which the blanket is folded for use as a garment;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the blanket in fully folded condition but with one fastener thereof n;

Pig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the blanket in fully folded form with the fasteners completely applied.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral designates a blanket which is preferably of rectangular shape and which preferably has fringe 12 extending froni its o p posite ends. The blanketsmay be of any size found suitable and will preferably be of the character which is used by sportsmen for outings, by motorists as a lap robe, by sporting enthusiasts' when attending atheltic con tests, such as football games, in cold weather, andby athletes.

The complementary parts of an elongated slide fastener of conventional construction are secured to opposite longitudinal margins of the blanket. The fasteners will preferably be of the well known type having a'cloth strip 14 to which teeth 16 are secured The strips 14 will be sewed or otherwise secured to the blanket at the same face thereof and will preferably be of the same length, and will be similarly positioned upon the blanket with respect to the spacing thereof from opposite ends of the blanket. Thus, as shown in Fig. 1, each of the fasteners will be of a shorter length than the blanket and will terminate spaced therefrom at each end. The arrangenient will be such that, when the blanket is foldedto bring the opposite longitudinal edges thereof adjacent to each other, the teeth will be placed in mating position so that the slider member 18. carried by one of the sections may engage the starting end portion 20 of the other sec tion, and thereupon the slider 18 may slide lengthwise of the two sections to cause the teeth 16 to interlock. It will be understood'that, while one elongated fastener is shown herein, two or more fasteners may be employed instead, thus making it possible for a selected fastener only to be secured, or for all fasteners to be secured.

' A pair of sets of fasteners of the same separable slide type 'are mounted in longitudinal alignment to extend transversely of'the blanket adjacent one end of the longi tudinal slide fasteners. Each of these slide fasteners will be of the same type discussed previously, having a tape p ortion22carrying projecting teeth 24, with one unit of each set or pair carrying a slider 26 and the other unit of each pair having a starting part 28,. The parts 30. and 32 constitute one set or pair, and the parts 34 and 36 constitute another set or pair; The parts of each set are located adjacent to each other in end to end alignment, as shown. The outermost or starting end of the unit 30 is loeated adjacent to one end of the tape 14 of one section ofthe longitudinal fastener, and the starting end 2 8 of the. unit 36 is located adjacent to the end of the other tape 14 on the other longitudinal fastener.

Each of the units 30, 32, 34, 36 is of a length slightly less thanone quarter of the transverse dimension of the, blanket lil so that the total length of the four fastener sections 39,32, 34, 36 is not equal to the width of the blanket and interruptions occur between these sections or parts. For this purposethe parts 32 and 34 will be arranged with their innermost ends adjacent to the longi tndina'l cente'r line of the blanket, as ir idicated by the dotted line 38, and will extend from that center line and a relation of substantial end abutment'in the'direction of the'nnits 30am 3,6, respectively. The part 32will preferably be arran ge'd with its starter '28 located adja cent to the center line 38, and the part 34 will preferably be arrang edwith its slider 26 having a starting position adjacen't' to the center'line 38. 'There' is a spacing be tween the'parts' 30 and32 of one set substantially equis p a'ced from the longitudinal fold line '40, and a similar spacing of'the' adjacent ends of the complementary fastener parts 34 and 36fro m the longitudinal foldline 42. Each of the'fastener parts 39, 32, 34, 36 will be secured to the same face of the blanket at which the strips 14 of the longitudinal fasteners are secured. Also, as will be seen in Fig. l, the fastener parts 30, 32 3'4, 36 will be so arranged that the teeth'24 thereof are located 'at the 'side thereof "nearest adjacent fringed end of "the blanket. This construction'is substantially the same as the constructionshown in my co-pending application, Serial N0. 205,979. i w t In spaced relation to the opposite end of the blanket and adjacent to the opposite ends of the longitudinal fastener are provided' one or more transverse fastener sections. I prefer to employ two such fastener sections 44 and 46, as shown in'Fig. 1, although either may be omitted if desired. The section 44, Where used, will be complementary to the section 32 of the fastener 30, 32, that is, will be of substan'tially'the same length and will be constructed to mate with the fastener unit 39. The unit' 44 will extend transversely of the robe from a point adjacent the longitudinal edge thereof and also adjacent to the tape 14 of one longitudinal fastener section, and will terminate at its inner end spaced from the longitudi nal fold line 40. The starter part 48 of the 'fastener'44 will be located adjacent the marginal edge" of the robe. If a second fastener element 46 is employed, it'will be positioned similarly to the part 44 to extend inwardly and transversely from a side edge of the blanket opposite that at which the part 44 is secured and adjacent to the end of the longitudinal fastener tape. The fastener part 46 will be complementary to the section 36 of the fastener 34, 3.6 and will have a slider 50 adapted to start interengageuser.

secured to the'blanket at the same face thereof at which the other fasteners above describedare secured.

The blanket is adapted to have, in addition to the longitudinal fold lines 38, 4G, 42 above described, a sub- 1 stantially intermediate transverse fold 'line 52, an end transverse fold line" 54 substantially aligned with the fastener sections 30-36, and an opposite transverse end fold line 56 substantially aligned with the fastener or fasteners 44, 46.

' Theblanket may he used as a covering without substantial interference from the fasteners by reason of the fact that all of the fasteners are secured at the same suring 'of the robe as a cover, that is, with the fasteners lowermost, although in this'instance, especially if fasteners of these-called uncovered type are used wherein the fastener teeth project beyond their fabric mounting strips, the material of the teeth may touch the body ofthe In cases where the fasteners are of the so-called closed type, wherein the teeth are anchored to the fabric or ribbon intermediate the width of the ribbon so that longitudinal margins of the ribbon lap the teeth, the ribbon will protect;the user against direct contact with the teeth of the fastener.

.The blanket may be formed as a garment in either of several forms. In one form where the blanket is folded at the longitudinal fold lines 40 and 42 so as to bring the mating'fastener sections 30 and 32 together, and sections 34 and 36 togetherpa garment in the nature of a cape will be formed. In'folding the blanket to form a cape, theend portion 58 located. outwardly of line 54 will be folded on line 54, and then the folds at each of the foldlines 40, 42 will preferably be made in directions to position the marginal end portion 58 of the blanket innermost, as

illustrated in Fig. 2. If it is desired to use the blanket portion 58 as a head covering, the cape may be inverted to position portion 58 outermost. This cape effect requires that the longitudinal fasteners shall be either wholly or partly open so as to permit the garment to fit over the shoulders of the user, with the end panels draping at the front of the users body.

V The blanket may be formed into a bag for protecting I the feetand legs of a spectator at an outdoor game, such as a football game, by fastening the transverse fasteners 30, 32, 34, 36, and also the longitudinal fasteners 14, 16

to produce a unit substantially as illustrated in Fig. 2.

A variant of this arrangement will include the partial afstening only of the. transverse fasteners, thus leaving holes at the bottom of the blanket bagthrough which the user may extend his feet. In such instances the device may be used as a lap and leg protection by the driver of an automobile while affording to him free use of his feet to operate the control pedals of an automobile, such as the accelerator,.the brake pedal and the clutch pedal.

The foregoing adaptations and uses of the device have all been described in my co-pending application, and this application is particularly concerned with the utility of the fastener strips 44 and 46. These are utilized, as best seen in Fig. 3, by folding the blanket upon the longitudinal fold lines 40 and 42 and upon the transverse fold lines 54 and 56 to substantially the position shown in Fig.

. 12 with the longitudinal fastener-14, 15 and one of the such that one of the transverse fastener sets 30, 32, 34,

36will be closed, and the other will be open. .The open set will be positioned outermost as shown in Fig. 3. As-

suming that the open set is the set 30, 32, the fastener 30 will be positioned outermost, and the strip fastener- 44 will also be positioned outermost. These parts may then be brought together and joined by the slider 26 so what of a loop. This renders the blanket convenient for carrying. purposes since the arm of the user may extend through the loop and hold the blanket in that fashion, that is, to be used and carried in a manner comparable to a womans muff. Observe in this connection that this result is achieved by the use of only a single fastener at the end of the blanketopposite that at which the fasteners 30, 32 and 34, 36 are secured. It will be apparent that if only one unit, such as the unit 44, is providedv at this end of the blanket, then the blanket must always be folded to position the fastener 44 at the outermost fold of the blanket as it is folded to the Fig.3 form. Where two such strips '44 and 46 are provided, however, the manner in which the blanket is folded isimmaterial, since one or the other of the two parts 44, 46 will always be outermost at the end of the blanket which is to be joined to one of the opposite fastener units 30, 32 or 34, 36.

While reference has been made herein to the fact that the slider 26 of the fastener section 30 and the starter 28 of the section 36 are located outermost, and

certain advantages result from this arrangement, that it,

be oriented similarly to the starter 28 of the strip 36.

may be omitted and the advantages of the device partly retained, insofar as holding the unit in compact folded It will also be understood that the longitudinal fasteners condition and accommodating formation of a cape are concerned.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be understood that changes in the construction may be made within the scope of the appended claims without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

I claim: p 1. An article of manufacture comprising a blanket having opposite longitudinal margins, two pairs of coniplementary slide fastener sections secured to said blanket to extend end to end in transversely aligned relation adja cent to one end of said blanket, said pairs being located on opposite sides of a longitudinal center fold and the sections of each pair being located on opposite sides of respectively adjacent longitudinal quarter-fold lines 'whereby said blanket may be folded transversely adjacent to said pairs of fastener sections and thence may be folded longitudinally along said quarter-fold lines to 10 cate said transverse fastener sections of said pairs for interlocking engagement, and a slide fastener section secured to said blanket adjacent theopposite' end thereof to extend transversely of the'blanket and in register with one ofsaid first named fastener sections to cooperate and interlock therewith when said blanket is folded along anintervening transverse fold line to juxtapose the same to said registering first named fastener section.

2. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein all fastenersare secured to one surface of said blanket.

3. An article of manufacture as defined in claim l,

wherein all fasteners are secured to the same face'of said blanketand in spaced relation to theends of said blanket.

4. An article of manufacture comprising a blanket having opposite longitudinal margins, a pair of complementary slide fastener sections secured to said longitudinal margins and each having an end portion terminating spaced from one end of said blanket, said fastener sections being positioned to interlock when said blanket is folded along longitudinal quarter-fold lines, two pairs of complementary slide fastener sections secured to said blanket to extend end to end in transversely aligned relation adjacent to said last named end portions of said first named fastener sections and spaced from the end of said blanket, said pairs being located on opposite sides of a longitudinal center fold line and the sections of each pair being located at opposite sides of respectively adjacent longitudinal quarter-fold lines whereby said blanket may be folded transversely adjacent to said last named fastener sections and thence may be folded longitudinally along said quarter-fold lines to locate said transverse fastener sections of said pairs for interlocking engagement, and a slide fastener section secured to said blanket adjacent the opposite end thereof to extend transversely of the blanket and in register with one of said first named transverse fastener sections to cooperate and interlock therewith when said blanket is folded along an interlocking transverse fold line to juxtapose the same with said registering first named transverse fastener section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,253,039 Hunt et al. Jan. 8, 1918 

